Great point. You'd think if they allow this to play out in the long term via attrition and growth they'd ending saving a lot more money than displacing so many pilots short term. The gain doesn't seem to be worth it.

 

Right off the UAL website.

Inflight Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi Coverage | United Airlines

Note, not a single 67 or 87 has WiFi. Does that make any sense from a customer standpoint?

 

For now.... I heard the China airplanes got snagged out from under us. But I believe the search continues

 

Looking at Delta, they appear to be much further along with their fleet having Wi-Fi service. The Gogo service they have though is limited to the coverage map below. What we are putting in as I understand it is satellite based Wi-Fi that won't have the coverage limitations. I could see why this would be a more time consuming and expensive system to put in. In the end it will allow coverage on legs outside the U.S. We do have the Gogo system on the PS 757s, but for the routes they always fly that works fine. I wonder what the issues might be mounting a satellite receiver dome up on top of the 787 composite tube though?

Gogo Inflight Internet - Participating Airlines



Gogo Has the U.S. Covered

Delta Connect and Gogo are available on Gogo equipped flights within the continental U.S. and portions of Alaska*.

With Delta and Gogo, you can surf the sky knowing that we have you covered on Gogo equipped flights within the entire continental U.S. & Alaska.
*Service is not available outside the continental USA and Alaska as shown. Some parts of Alaska may experience interruptions.

Check My Trips to see if Wi-Fi is available on your flight.

 

I would think you wouldn't have to mount it on top...the signal could go through the aircraft fuselage skin.

For that matter, you could put it in an outer portion of the wing, and let it through the composite skin, in a portion that is just an empty bay.

 

Same numbers are in Hemispheres; that was where I saw them. Same graphic.

And no, it makes no sense from a customer-service standpoint. We need to get this done.

Apparently, there is no STC for a system on the 787 yet.

 

What aircraft are they parking for the future used aircraft purchases? Certainly this isn't for growth.

 

Here's my guess:

I think there is still a slight excess in training capacity on the Bus. If they had a few extra Buses, they could send some of the new 737s to get modified with wifi/entertainment systems.

Once complete, they could keep the Buses, or park them.

Used airplanes, intended for short-time use, would be cheap to acquire, and have no long-term maintenance costs (ie, D-checks).

This would reduce the training footprint on the 737 as well.

 

I don't know the answer to that question, but in July we had 514 weekly Airbus departures from Houston vs 256 from Denver. That's 2 to 1. Yet we have 123 Airbus pilots based in Houston vs 454 based in Denver. That's today, not the future. Manpower is out of wack.

 

I was told that it is because the cargo doors on the 320 open outward, 737 opens inward. This allows the 320 to carry bigger cargo pallets in and out of Mexico and Central America.